Does the marine macrobenthic community recover after an oil spill? 10 years since the Nissos Amorgos disaster in Venezuelan Gulf, Caribbean Sea
¿Se recupera la comunidad macrobentónica después de un derrame petrolero? A 10 años del desastre del Nissos Amorgos en el Golfo de Venezuela, Mar Caribe
Abstract
In 1997, 25.000 barrels of petroleum were spilled along 40 Km of marine beaches in Venezuela Gulf, an area where we carried out, two years before, benthonic macro invertebrates (BMI) inventories. In order to monitor the ecosystem “recovery”, we repeated inventories five (2003) and 10 years (2008) later. Before the spill (1996), the BMI community was constituted by 75 species: 30 gastropod mollusks (GM), 28 bivalve mollusks (BM), 11 annelids (A) and 6 crustaceans (C). After five years this community structure became 27 GM, 26 BM, 5 A and 3 C. Although biodiversity only decreased 16.7% (14 species), the composition changed: out of the 75 BMI before the spill, only reappeared 31% (11 BM, 7 GM, 3 A and 2 C). After 10 years, the BMI biodiversity increased by a factor of 1.5 (113 species) respect to 1996. Community structure changed to 48 BM, 36 GM, 14 C and 13 A, plus 2 new echinoderm species. Out of these 113 species only 38 were original species (OPS) before the oil spill (16 BM, 15 GM, 3 C and 2 A). Therefore, 51% of the OPS remained without returning. Our results contradict the classic statement about marine ecosystem recovery affected by oil spills, i.e. to return to its “original condition” are required 2-5 years. Indeed, this investigation indicates that recovery of Caño Sagua BMI community may take, at least, one more decade. But, will the BMI return to their original condition? The probability is extremely low. The most likely scenario will be, at a time difficult to estimate today, a new assemblage of BMI species in equilibrium, with a mixture of OPS and new ones. These results means that, in terms of the original ecosystem condition, the BMI community of Caño Sagua beach, never will recover since its trophic structure never will be the same.
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